Mohammed esh Sheikh el Mamun

Mohammed esh Sheikh el Mamun (also spelled Muhammad al-Shaykh al-Ma'mun, among other transliterations; also known as Abu Abdallah Mohammed III, Arabic: أبو العبدالله محمد سعدي الثالث‎) was a member of the Saadian dynasty who ruled parts of Morocco during the succession conflicts within the dynasty between 1603 and 1627. He was the son of sultan Ahmad al-Mansur and the brother of Abu al-Ma'ali Zaydan al-Nasir and Abu Faris Abdallah.[1][2]

Muhammad al-Shaykh al-Ma'mun had been designated by his father (Al-Mansur) in 1579 and again in 1584 to be his successor.[3][4] He was, however, also imprisonedby his father at some point for rebellion.[2] When Al-Mansur died in 1603, his two brothers refused to recognize him as the successor and immediately presented rival claims to the sultanate.[2] During this period, the Saadian realm was divided between two main parts: one ruled from the main capital in Marrakesh, and the other from Fes in the north. Control of both regions changed hands multiple times. In 1604 Al-Ma'mun defeated his brother Zaydan who was ruling from Fes,[2] and thus he in turn ruled the northern part of Morocco until 1606 or later.[1] His position quickly weakened, however, and he tried to obtain support first from Tuscany and then from Spain.[2] In 1608, around the time that his brother Zaydan reasserted himself in Marrakesh, he fled to Spain. There he signed a treaty with King Philip III whereby he obtained military support in return for ceding the northern Moroccan port of Larache (al-ʿArāʾis̲h̲).[2] He thus returned to Morocco with Spanish aid in November 1610 and forced at least some of the local leaders and officials in Fes to support him, under the threat of Spanish force.[2][5] However, his concession of Larache to the Spanish quickly eroded his political support and also weakened the larger Saadian dynasty's prestige, resulting in local religious leaders and marabouts increasingly challenging Saadian rule.[5][4] He was finally assassinated in 1613, after which his son Abdallah al-Ghalib II continued to rule in Fez.[1][5]